College baseball and softball playoffs extend well into June these days, and Albany coach Scott Marr believes lacrosse should get with the program. Based on what the Great Danes endured prior to battling favored Syracuse to a 17-16 overtime loss Sunday in the Carrier Dome, who can blame him?

“It’s too early,” Marr said afterward. “There’s no question we should not be playing lacrosse on February 16. There should not be a game (then). We should be playing in March. We should have a start date of February 1 (for preseason camp) and our first game should be in March. We should get away from Memorial Day weekend. We should push it back into June so the games can be played in warmer weather.”

SU coach John Desko, who in Marr has an ally in his campaign to do away with the face-off — a topic for another day — agrees with the Danes’ coach in principle on returning lacrosse to the spring sport it used to be.

“I certainly understand where he’s coming from,” Desko said. “It makes sense to me at first glance. I just haven’t had a chance to think through all the ramifications of pushing the playoffs back into June.”

It has only been within the last two decades that Syracuse, even with the advantage of having the Carrier Dome, opened its season in February. This season’s Feb. 10 opener vs. Siena in the Dome was its earliest start ever. The logic behind the earlier start dates is simple. The more weeks you squeeze into a season, the fewer midweek games you are required to play. Desko believes that with parity now a fact of life in Division I it is risky business to fill out a schedule with midweek games against supposedly lesser foes.

“It allows you to play Saturday, Saturday, Saturday,” said Dan Sheehan, who coaches Division II national champion Le Moyne.

Sheehan scheduled the Dolphins’ opener Feb. 15 this season, its earliest ever. Needless to say, a significant snowstorm pushed the game, a 12-6 Northeast-10 victory over Assumption, back a day and into Dome, part of a quadruple-header that featured the SU women and men, Le Moyne and finally an Onondaga CC practice at 10 p.m.

Those teams were the lucky ones. Consider the days leading up to the game for Marr and Albany, which got hit even harder by the Nor’easter than Syracuse did.

“Our last practice was Tuesday, and it was 12 degrees,” he said. “Wednesday we went indoors, which is not a great situation. Thursday we didn’t practice, we ran on the track and lifted weights. Friday we went bowling. And then Saturday we had to shovel the field a little bit and go out and really did nothing. It’s not easy. It’s a challenge, and I really think it’s an injustice to the game.”

Marr believes it’s an injustice to the fans, who have to bundle up in winter gear for a “spring” sport and travel to games in bad weather. And he thinks it’s an injustice to the players, who are robbed of precious preparation time. He believes the answer is obvious — institute a mandatory start of the season in March and go back to midweek games or, if necessary, push back the playoffs to June.

“I guess I’ll get in trouble this, but I can’t say our coaches association is really thinking on this one,” Marr said. “If we were really smart we would push the game back.”

It would make sense, especially considering the disparity in weather at this time of the year in different regions of the country. Teams from the South usually have a big advantage coming out of the gate for that reason, although probably not so much this year with the cold and snow extending even there.

And then there is the Ivy League, which is a major player in DI lacrosse but by league rules has a Feb. 1 start time for preseason camp, nearly a month behind the rest of DI.

“I can’t believe the coaches haven’t received some kind of relief from that rule,” Desko said.

Maybe it should work the other way and the rest of DI should follow the Ivy rule. All things considered, Marr’s argument is valid. The trend, though, is going the other way. For teams in the Northeast, it is not a good one.

Sleight of handIt’s one thing to fool an old sportswriter watching the game from the pressbox. It’s quite another to fool practically everyone else, including the TV cameras and your own head coach. Yet, that’s exactly what Syracuse close defender Brandon Mullins and goalie Bobby Wardwell did when they unveiled a new version of the hidden ball trick. The ensuing goal turned out to be critical, although it appeared to be relatively harmless at the time. Here is how it went down:

The Orange was up 15-11 and pulling away early in the fourth quarter with the ball on the ground in front of Wardwell. Mullins swooped in through a crowd and snatched it up, then presumably flipped it to his goalie in the safety of the crease. Mullins then headed to Wardwell’s left to receive a possible outlet pass from the goalie, who came out of his crease and looked the other way toward defender Sean Young. As Wardwell cradled the ball in his stick supposedly preparing to pass to Young, Albany attackman Miles Thompson snuck up behind him and checked the goalie’s stick to the turf. A referee sprinted in to watch Thompson pick up the ball and dump it into the empty net but instead witnessed the frantic Thompson searching for the ball while Wardwell stood watching.

Where was it? It was still in the stick of Mullins, who had never flipped the ball to his goalie. Mullins trotted nonchalantly toward the SU sideline and then streaked into the Albany offensive zone past defenders who were watching the action in front of the SU goal. When he reached the top of the crease he flipped a pass to attackman Randy Staats, who was standing all alone to the side of the open cage for an easy dunk.

“I missed it all until the very end,” said Desko, who had plenty of company. “I’ve never seen anyone even try that play before. All I saw was Miles in a frenzy. He knew exactly what he was going to do with it when he picked it up, except it wasn’t there. That was a two-goal swing right there.”

In a game that eventually went to overtime, the sleight of hand turned out to be a pivotal play for the Orange.

The real dealIt was only the first game of the season for Albany, and the Danes still have significant questions to answer at the face-off X and on defense, but there is no question their offense is as good as any team in the country and could carry them deep into the playoffs. Desko believes the reason lies in Marr’s ability to surround the Thompsons with midfielders good enough to take advantage of all the attention the talented trio commands at attack.

“I give a lot of credit to the Albany team,” Desko said after the Danes rallied from a five-goal, fourth-quarter deficit to send it into OT. “He’s got 90 percent of his team back, and they know people are going to be after their attackmen, and I thought a lot of their middies came up big, scored big goals for them.”

For sure. Albany scored 16 goals despite getting only one apiece from superstar brothers Lyle and Miles Thompson. The pair combined for seven assists, though, with several going to midfielders, who scored nine goals. Miles Thompson said the production is by design.

“We told them this is going to be their year because there’s so much attention on us,” he said. “The doubles and slides are going to come to us, so that’s going to be a free shot for them. That’s something we did pretty good today. Our midfielders stepped up.”

And in the process they made defending the Great Danes a whole lot tougher.

New bodyMiles Thompson, always the stocky, powerful player compared to graceful brother Lyle, sported a new look in the opener that should make him even tougher to defend as a senior.

“I dropped 40 pounds,” said Miles, who is listed on the 2014 roster at 5-foot-11, 185 pounds (Lyle is 6-foot, 180). “I actually got a personal trainer over the winter and worked with him. We started as soon as school ended in the first semester right until I came back to school. I gave it like a month and a half of good eating and it’s kind of paying off. I definitely can feel the difference. I’m more confident in myself. Even my brother said he’s more confident with me having the ball now.”

New look aside, there is no confusing the contrasting styles of the brothers. Miles still loves to start from behind the cage with his back to a defender and then try to power through or past him to the front, while Lyle is more comfortable facing his foe and trying to dodge past him. Both are extremely effective.

Galasso updateDesko is guardedly optimistic that former North Carolina All-American Nicky Galasso, who has been at SU for more than a year now but has yet to play a game due first to a foot injury and now an upper-body problem, could see some action when Maryland visits the Dome at 1 p.m. Saturday. It will be SU’s first-ever ACC contest.

“He’s doing some things in practice,” Desko said. “I’m happy to see him out there with the guys. It (his return) will be close to this weekend. I’ll know more as the week progresses.”